I have a friend who has been visiting us in Hong Kong regularly (from the US!) ever since we moved here in 2017. Every time he comes, there are a few favorite foods that he has to eat. One is any rendition of sweet & sour pork ribs (“咕嚕肉” or ”京都排骨“). The second is the fried chicken with pomelo at The Yuan (原汁原味）in Wan Chai. And the third is the fantastic aromatic duck seafood stew at Forbidden Duck (Causeway Bay).
Ever since the pandemic ended and international travel resumed, we’ve seen our friend on a regular basis again, which has been great. One side effect of that is more visits to Forbidden Duck lately!
Forbidden Duck is part of Chef Alvin Leung’s empire of restaurants in Hong Kong (his most famous being his [formerly 3 now 2] Michelin starred Bo Innovation). Chef Alvin Leung is probably the most decorated Hong Kong home grown chef. Forbidden Duck is his more casual restaurant, and there are a few locations around Hong Kong.
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The focus of the restaurant, of course, is the Peking Duck. They do an admirable job, and since duck is the focus of the restaurant, it’s pretty much always available. (At a lot of other places, you typically have to pre-order the duck.)
The side veggies were a bit more creative a few years ago, including melon and pink radish. During a more recently visit, however, they’ve switched back to using just the traditional cucumbers and scallions.
The steamed skins are pretty nice, and they’ll give you more if you run out.
(half duck, $308; whole duck $590)
I must agree that the Seafood Rice in Aromatic Duck Soup ($218) at Forbidden Duck is indeed amazing. My favorite part is how they use two textures of rice. There’s an insanely aromatic broth made (presumably) from duck bones and other seafood. There’s scallops, pieces of duck meat + skin, and rice inside the soup. The scallops are barely poached, and thus have an amazing texture. And the best part? The sizzling toasted rice 鍋巴 that comes on the side. Add them together, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic duck soup with beautifully contrasting crispy + soft rice all happening in one bite.
This is definitely a “must order”. In fact, my friend comes to this restaurant just for this dish!
More recently Forbidden Duck started launching a coupon program where they give you five $100 (HKD) coupons to be used at a next visit (usually within a month). You have to spend $500 to use one $100 coupon, and you can only use 3 coupons. It’s effectively 20% off a HKD$1500 meal. At the same time, I noticed prices have gone up quite a bit (~30%) since our first visit 5 years ago. Perhaps that is to be expected?
Since Bryan loves Peking duck so much, I don’t ever need to really twist his arm to get him to agree to come here. I personally am happy as long as we get the Seafood Rice in Aromatic Duck Soup, (and would be totally fine if we skipped the duck!). Haha, of course Bryan wouldn’t go for that.
All in all, this has surprisingly been a place we have visited more often this past year.
Forbidden Duck
Times Square
1001b, 1 Matheson St,
Causeway Bay
